One of the greatest things about modern video games is they’re fun to watch. It’s always been amusing to see Fred Savage’s younger brother totally pwn some 8-bit side-scroller, but unless you’re in the presence of a true old school Nintendo wizard, it’s not fun to suffer through someone sucking at Mario Bros.
Newer titles and consoles don’t have that problem. No matter how bad someone is at Call of Duty: Black Ops, the graphics and gameplay make it entertaining enough to sit back and enjoy the action until it’s your turn to hold the controller. And if the person who’s killing bad guys or noobs on screen is actually good at what he/she does, it makes the spectating all the better.
Don’t believe me? We’ll I’ve got at least 22.5 million video views that prove my point. That’s how many streams Major League Gaming delivered throughout the weekend of June 3 through June 5 at its Columbus Pro Circuit event. By comparison, the 2011 Superbowl averaged 111 million viewers on Fox and the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament received an average of 9.1 million daily viewers.
Over 16,000 fans and 1,300 players descended upon the capital of Ohio, while viewers from over 164 countries tuned into watch the live streamed games from their computers at home. When the three-day competition came to a close after Losira lost to MMA in the 40-some-minute Grand final match of Starcraft 2, more than 2.2 million hours of total online video had been consumed.
If the fast-paced player vs. player “military science fiction real-time strategy video game” is up your alley or the commentary from the casters keeps you engaged, feel free to make your way to Anaheim on July 29 through July 31 for the next stop in the MLG circuit. Or stay tuned to MajorLeagueGaming.com and catch the the action with tens of millions of other gaming enthusiasts and spectators online.
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They have been trying to make professional video game leagues since 1995. The problem is FPS games are NOT crowd pleasers. If they did a Rock Band or DDR type league, there would be a hope for one.
I could easily watch hours of Starcraft battles with the right commentary. Well, maybe not hours, but at least one or two. And I’ve never even played the game.
[...] say you’re a new media journalist writing a story about Major League Gaming (this is a random example I obviously came up with out of thin air) and you stumble across this [...]
Once maybe but you won’t do that every day. The PGL tried this and frankly the gamers went from attack mode to defence mode after the first series of games and everyone just sat around for HOURS waiting for someone to make a move. FPS games are frankly boring as hell when anyone plays defence. The first team/player to do that will kill the league dead just like all the others that have come and gone in the last 16 years.
[...] Is Major League Gaming a Spectator Sport?Tubefilter NewsOr stay tuned to MajorLeagueGaming.com and catch the the action with tens of millions of other gaming enthusiasts and spectators online. They have been trying to make professional video game leagues since 1995. The problem is FPS games are NOT crowd … [...]
True. I won’t watch every day. But 11.5+ million people subscribe to WoW. That makes for a great innate fan base to watch games. Also, a lot has happened in the past 16 years. Online video went through a boom and bust in the dot com era, but now seems to have found it’s footing. Maybe spectator online gaming will do the same. Let’s make a bet on it! Tell me the over/under.